~ Shares.io today announces the next stage of its journey to deliver “investing made social” as waitlists open for UK launch in Autumn, expected Europe-wide early 2022 ~ 

~ One of Europe’s largest-ever seed rounds, $10 Million USD pre-product and previously unannounced funding also revealed, to build social-first consumer app with no-minimum, no-fees access to 1,500 stocks ~ 

~ Serial entrepreneur, CEO & Co-Founder Benjamin Chemla, with Shares’ team of Founding and Scaleup Veterans, pioneer a whole new investing app category to challenge the fast-growing fintech space ~

 ~ VC backers include Singular (lead investor) and Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, early investor in Fintech Unicorns N26, Wise, and Bitpanda. Strategic advisors include a Co-Founder of Freetrade, ex C-Suite Exec of Société Générale and early stage veteran of Uber ~

Shares.io today announces the next stage of its journey to deliver “investing made social” and invites subscribers to join the waitlist for the Autumn launch of the Shares app in the United Kingdom, anticipating delivery across Europe in early 2022. Shares, the consumer mobile app and social-first platform for retail investors, designed from the ground up with user experience and community in mind, gives no-minimum, no-fees access to 1,500 stocks. Waitlist is now open to subscribers, who will be the first to access Shares on day one of launch.

Founded early 2021, Shares has already achieved one of the largest-ever seed fundraises by an early stage startup in Europe, raising $10 Million USD in the first, pre-product seed round alone. Key VC & Angel support vindicates Shares will quickly become a category winner led by CEO & Co-Founder Benjamin Chemla, serial entrepreneur with a track record that includes co-founding Stuart in 2015. Six years later, Stuart is the European leader in last-mile logistics, continues its rapid growth trajectory and employs more than 600 people. 

The Shares Co-Founders and Benjamin, CEO have quickly assembled 35 experienced scaleup veterans to-date, ready to launch Europe’s first fully integrated social and investing app in less than a year. In addition to accelerated product development, Shares will quickly go-to-market in a highly regulated industry and comply with requirements that include KYC, AML and MAR. The startup will use its recent fundraise to continue to scale at pace on a mission to empower users with tools that open doors to first-time investors and increase financial inclusion.

Shares is creating a whole new investing app category where anyone, including new investors can start conversations, network and learn from friends and experts as a community - together in a one-stop shop with all their portfolio management needs. Shares becomes a market-leading app with low barriers to entry, including access to invest from £1.00 GBP - and no trade fees - across 1,500 US stocks. The Shares app will truly democratise investing with a serious finance platform that inspires confidence for any user to build their own successful portfolio.

Designed to be social-first, Shares combines the functionality of a consumer investment app with the wisdom of online forums, where members can buy stocks, react to the market in real-time, start conversations with friends and access curated expert advice in one place. In addition to the Invest platform, Shares enables community and private Chat to network, learn, track friends and grow individual portfolios (as well as make Group stock indexes with Friends) from the app. Additionally, Shares’ curated market intelligence feed, Spotlight, allows Shares members to build their financial awareness and educate themselves about investing, the biggest industry trends and offer supportive guides on tax, regulation and compliance.

Benjamin Chemla, CEO & Co-Founder of Shares describes the product as an “entirely new category of fintech investing platform that resonates with today’s investors. We founded Shares, ‘investing made social’ for investors who prioritise user experience and community first, and also expect a serious platform to build their portfolio.” He added: “Building Shares wouldn’t have been possible without the seasoned team of scaleup experts we’ve assembled across the business to achieve this product, in record time, without sacrificing quality. There is still untapped market opportunity in this high-growth fintech space and Shares is uniquely positioned as Europe’s first social and investing app to fast become a leader in the industry.” 

Shares has grown quickly since being founded earlier this year by winning early VC & Angel investor backing plus a slate of top-tier business advisors. The first seed round raised $10 Million USD, pre-product from Singular, Valar Ventures, André Mohamed, Co-Founder of Freetrade and others who share the view of the market opportunity for a unified platform that combines investing, social and expert advice into one app. Shares is a proudly international and fast growing team of 35 today, representing 10 nationalities based across three offices in Paris, London and Krakow so far. Talent has been drawn from leading scaleups including Revolut, Stuart, Bumble, and FreeNow with diverse expertise applied to build the one-of-a-kind Shares app. 

James Fitzgerald, Founding Partner at Valar Ventures and VC supporter of Shares said: “Valar invested in the team at Shares with confidence in their ability to overcome the technical challenges and execute the project in a matter of months to get to market. Congratulations to Shares for executing the launch of Europe's first social-focused investing app - a feat of engineering, finance and regulatory know-how.”

André Mohamed, Co-Founder of Freetrade applauds the vision, adding: “Shares is completely different to first-generation fintech investing platforms and social - notoriously complex - has been exquisitely built into the app. By packaging what everyday traders do online into one platform, Shares is going to revolutionise how social is used for support and guidance - that’s taken to the next level with this app launch - not to mention the product roadmap ahead.”

Shares’ VC & Angel investors include Singular (lead investor), Valar Ventures, Global Founders Capital and Red Sea Ventures to date. André Mohamed, Co-Founder of Freetrade, Didier Valet, ex Deputy CEO of Société Générale, Chris Adelbach, Managing Partner of Outrun Ventures & UKBAA Angel Investor of the Year, and Ryan McKillen, Founding Team of Uber are currently business advisors.

Shares.io welcomes all traders, from market influencers, to experienced and first-time investors to a completely new way to invest, learn and build community - join the waitlist. Watch for Shares’ Autumn launch in the UK, to be made available in the Apple and Google app stores. Shares expects full roll-out across Europe in early 2022.